Knight, Death, and the Devil

1513

This is one of Albrecht Dürer's three incomparable Meisterstiche, or master engravings, which also include Saint Jerome in His Study (1514) and Melencolia I (1514), all of which were given by Jones to the M.I.A. Knight, Death, and the Devil is the artist's meditation on a life of action and moral strength in a world beset with temptation. The knight sits astride his superbly rendered horse like a good Christian soldier, rigidly facing forward and impervious to the symbols of sin and death around him. His dog, emblematic of fidelity, also points forward, dutifully undeterred by the lizard and skull in his path.